President John Mahama welcoming Guinean President Alpha Condé for a discussion. On the left is Ghana's Foreign Minister, Hanna Tetteh.

President Mahama is advocating a complete overhaul of various institutions within the African Union to ensure accountability.

According to the President, the time has come for the AU to come up with ways of funding its’ activities so leaders don’t always depend on donor support.

President Mahama is however pushing for greater accountability if this should happen.

The President was speaking during a meeting of African heads of state at the ongoing AU summit in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

Briefing the media after the close door meeting, Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh said President Mahama was firm on how the Union could finance its activities after 50 years of existence.

“What he (President Mahama) said was that with increased funding comes accountability and therefore we will like to see an overhaul of the AU’s institutions and especially their budgeting and accountability process.So that if member states are being asked to contribute more money, they know exactly where that money is going.”

She added, “at the end of the day this is tax payer’s money and we are accountable to our tax payers for how we spend their money. By the same token, if we are going to increase our funding to the AU, the AU as an organisation also has to be more accountable to the member states and make provision for the other organs of the AU to also receive adequate find so that they perform their key mandate.”

Meanwhile, President John Mahama has been holding a number of bilateral and consultative meetings on the sidelines of the 21st Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Ethiopia.